WASHINGTON — President Clinton signed an executive order Thursday to fly all flags across the country at half-staff on Saturday in honor of Edmund S. Muskie, the former Maine senator and secretary of state who died Tuesday.

Muskie, a World War II veteran, will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery Saturday afternoon.

In signing the order, Clinton called Muskie “one of our nation’s foremost public servants.”

The order requires all flags on public buildings and grounds; at all military posts and naval stations; on all Navy ships, and at all U.S. embassies, consulates and other overseas facilities, to be flown at half-staff. Flags in Maine have been at half-staff since Monday.